Here is what we learned on October 7th from Stephanie Tucker, furbearer biologist for the North Dakota Game & Department:

Yes, I’ve seen this picture many times before…and it’s a hoax. It was a “photoshopped” image. Below is a link to Chris Wemmer’s (CA) blog who captured the image of a mountain lion on his trail camera (about a forth the way down his webpage) that was later put into the background of the picture with the elk hunter.